The Electoral Commission has announced a fresh voter registration exercise and residual LC1 elections in villages where polling did not take place during the recently concluded nationwide elections.
Simon Byabakama, the EC chairperson, said fresh registration of village voters will be conducted on Thursday, July 30, while the updated voters’ register will be displayed on Friday, July 31.
Residual LC1 elections will then be held on Saturday, August 1.
Byabakama said the nationwide exercise was largely successful, with voting conducted in more than 71,000 villages, representing 98.4 percent of all villages across the country.
He said polling did not take place in slightly more than 1,000 villages, representing 1.6 percent of the total.
The EC attributed the failure to conduct elections in those villages to several challenges experienced on polling day.
“In some villages, polling stations experienced violence, fighting, destruction of village registers and disputes among candidates,” Byabakama said.
He added that the commission also recorded isolated incidents, including the death of candidates and complaints relating to village registers, which made it impossible to complete the elections in some areas.
Byabakama commended Ugandans for turning up in large numbers to participate in the elections, saying the high voter turnout demonstrated the public’s commitment to choosing their local leaders.
He urged residents in the affected villages to participate peacefully in the residual elections, stressing that every village must have elected leaders as required by the law governing Local Council One elections.
“In accordance with the electoral laws, every village must have leaders. I therefore call upon all residents in the affected villages to embrace these remaining elections,” he said.
He also warned individuals who may be planning to disrupt the elections that they would face the full force of the law.
“I strongly warn anyone planning to interfere with these elections that the law will take its course against them,” Byabakama said.
Meanwhile, the commission has started receiving election petitions arising from the recently concluded LC1 elections. He said the petitions will be handled in accordance with the law.
The residual elections are expected to conclude the nationwide LC1 electoral process in all villages where voting was interrupted or could not be conducted due to exceptional circumstances.
